Vienna, Second District: The "Leopoldstadt"

There is a German saying that goes "Reif für die Insel" - it means "done for the island" and you use it to express that you are very exhausted and ready to take a vacation on some fancy island. In Vienna, you have an opportunity to
live on an island and still be in a very central area of the city.

The second district is situated on an island between the Danube and the the Donaukanal canal. It is
very well-connected to the first district, yet it is popular with immigrants and students due to low prices for real estate. In terms of sightseeing, the opportunities are limited - but there are a few things that do justify a visit.

Let me start in the north: The Augarten is one of Vienna′s finest Baroque parks. You can′t avoid noticing the two massive
concrete Flak towers in the Augarten: They were built by the Nazis to defend Vienna against air-raids during WWII. There are two more of these couples behind the
Museumsquartier in the sixth and seventh district (one of them houses the "Haus des Meeres" aquarium).

Leopoldstadt Sights: Augarten & Karmelitermarkt

Now, the two towers could not prevent large areas of the second districts to be seriously blown to pieces and this explains the rather large percentage of moderately attractive buildings (and the relatively low cost of real estate) in this part of the second district. In the Augarten, you can find two institutions of national acclaim: The
Augarten porcelain manufactoryand the headquarter of the "Wiener Sängerknaben" or Vienna Boys′ Choir
at Palais Augarten.

Both are situated in buildings that are generally not open to the public, so picking up
chestnuts and throwing them at squirrels is the best thing you can do in the Augarten (at least this is what I used to do when I went there).
Nearby, you will also find the neo-Classical Palais Grassalkovics.

For proper sightseeing, move southwards. That way you will get to the Carmelite Church (Karmeliterkirche), a pretty and recently refurbished baroque church supplemented by a market. The "Karmelitermarkt" is at the centre of the former
Jewish quarter. In recent years, many Eastern European Jews have moved to this part of Vienna and re-vived the tradition of Jewish culture in the second district.
Nearby is the Produktenbörse (Corn Exchange) and the Kirche St. Leopold.

Jewish Heritage of the Second District

This is also the reason why the Leopodstadt is also called "Matzo Island". It was here where many Viennese Jews were gathered before their deportation to concentration camps in the course of the Holocaust
- there is a memorial site at a school where this happened. Today, the Karmelitermarkt is once again full of
kosher food stores and restaurants. Nearby, you can also see the neo-Classicist
Produktenbörse corn exchange building.

Moving even further south, you will get into other famous area of the second district:
The Prater. Contrary to popular (even Austrian) believe, the Prater is much more than the tacky carnival fair / Luna park type of place in its north. This area is in fact called
"Volksprater" or "Wurstelprater" and occupies only a small fraction of the Prater area. It originally consisted of
Habsburg hunting grounds and was later (in the 18th century under the rule of the reformist Emperor Joseph II) opened to the general public for the sake of recreation.
A good starting point is the Praterstern
and Venediger Au.

The most famous attraction of the Prater is the Ferris wheel, the "Wiener Riesenrad", spinning since 1897. It will provide you with excellent vistas on the second district and other parts of Vienna. There is a large number of hotels in the second district - partly because it is so close to the historic city centre of the first district, but partly also because of the
"Messe Wien", the convention centre. It is situated nearby the Würstelprater.
A bit further north you find the enormous Kirche
am Mexikoplatz.

Note that prostitution is generally legal in Austria - but not if it concerns 13-year-old drug addicts that sell themselves on a backstreet.
This used to be an issue of the Stuwerviertel
in particular, although the secene now seems to move more towards the Messe
Wien, the southern Handelskai and beyond.